Jimmy Savile once claimed to Louis Theroux that he hated children to try and squash paedophile rumours that were swirling.
The late entertainer – who was revealed to be a prolific sex offender after his death in 2011 – was interviewed by Louis in his 2000 documentary, When Louis Met Jimmy. One scene saw the pair driving along in a car together as Louis quizzed Savile about why he said he disliked kids.
“Obviously I don’t hate them, that’s number one,” Savile replied, leading Louis to ask why he said it. “Because we live in a very funny world," Savile replied.
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"And it's easier for me, as a single man, to say 'I don't like children'. Because that puts a lot of salacious tabloid people off the hunt.”
Louis, who was talking to Savile years before his crimes were exposed, chimed in to clarify that he did it to make sure tabloids didn’t pursue the “is he/isn’t he a paedophile line”. “Yes, yes, yes,” said the Jim'll Fix It star.
He went on: "How do they know whether I am (a paedophile) or not? How does anybody know whether I am?
"Nobody knows whether I am or not." He went on: "I know I'm not."
Louis suggested that Savile's method of deterring the gossip was actually "more suspicious in a way". But Savile insisted that it had worked like "a dream" for him. "That's my policy, that's the way it goes, that's what I do," he said.
The disgraced star died in 2011 at the age of 84. His sex crimes came to light after his death.
In 2019, Louis said at the Edinburgh International Television Festival that filming his documentary with Savile was "the strangest and most upsetting event” of his career.
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